85mm lens only good for portraits?

3 years 4 months ago #705627 by Alfonso Camil
As many of you know, I've been in photography for almost a year now.  I've been reading a lot and one of things I just read again, is that the 85mm lens is best portrait focal length.  When ever I hear 85mm, it's always something to do with portraits. 

So is this considered a speciality lens, or will this focal length get used for many other sort of shots?  


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3 years 4 months ago #705634 by Nikon Shooter
The 85 is just another focal length — as you know;
what makes good for portraits is the human scale
and the working distance.

Were we the size of elephants or bugs, the "best fo-
cal length" would be other.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 4 months ago #705738 by db3348
Alfonso ,

For many years ,  numerous traditional portrait photographers  chose  a focal length somewhere  between 1.5 to 2 x the focal length of the normal / standard focal length for the image format ,  because  it enabled  a good ,  natural camera-to-subject  relatonship  which ,  in turn ,   provided the most realistic perspective . 

So for the 35 mm film cameras , and  full-frame digital cameras  85 mm fits into that focal length range nicely .

But,  they are not only suitable for portraits ;  they are  just as good for landscape and nature photography  where  you  need just a slight amount of magnification  to bring  a slightly distant subject  that little bit closer .

db3348


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3 years 4 months ago #705823 by fmw
85mm lens only good for portraits?

No lens is limited by the subjects it can capture.


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